Fiona Hodgson
My beginnings in Agility go back close to the early days of the sport in NZ.
In 1987, I bought a Rottie pup and thought I’d better get this small animal under control before it became a large animal and so started taking him to the Obedience classes in town. He loved it - I loved it, and off we went.
It was at this time that I met up with a couple of others who wanted to do something other than obedience in the area and thought we’d have a crack at this new Agility type thing. The first day we put up two jumps and balanced a bit of board on a couple of saw-horses for a
           ...we put up two jumps
table. After two goes at this extensive course, we were all sure we knew everything there was to know about Agility – the last 30 years or so have been
 and balanced a bit of spent learning how wrong we all were!
  board on a couple of saw-horses for a table. After two goes at this
Since then I have been involved in every area of the sport and have been judging agility for over 20 years including all of
    extensive course, we the major National events many times
were all sure we knew everything there was to know about Agility..
and large Australian events including the Canberra Royal, Australian Nationals and NSW Festival of Agility a couple of times.
 I’ve run dogs of all sizes (both mine and those belonging to others). I’ve fallen over more times than I care to count and I could write a book on the mistakes I’ve made. I’ve won and I’ve lost (a lot).
I love judging and witnessing all of the fantastic performances and people just having fun on my courses. The only thing that makes me grumpy as a judge is harsh handling.
Having missed the last few NZDACs for one reason or another, it will be great to be at what looks to be a great one this year and I look forward to catching up with everyone. I was asked to supply a photo so thought it only appropriate to provide one from the last Zone 1 NZDAC.
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